Big Bird, Mitt Romney, and how PBS is actually funded

FILE - This Aug. 30, 2009 file photo shows Big Bird, of the children's television show Sesame Street, in Los Angeles. Big Bird is endangered. Jim Lehrer lost control. And Mitt Romney crushed President Barack Obama. Those were the judgments rendered across Twitter and Facebook Wednesday during the first debate of the 2012 presidential contest. While millions turned on their televisions to watch the 90-minute showdown, a smaller but highly engaged subset took to social networks to discuss and score the debate as it unspooled in real time. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)

In 2011, some members of Congress wanted to cut CPB funding afterthen-NPR CEO Vivian Schiller resigned following political controversies involvingher subordinates. Paula Kerger, PBS president and CEO, put together this video to lobby for the continuation offunding:

A Message from PBS President Paula Kergerpbs

PBS calls public television “America’s largest classroom”and says it is provided at a cost of $1per person per year. It says the government appropriation “equals about 15 percent of our system’s revenues,” although it points out that at some smallerstations it amounts to 40 to 50 percent of theirbudget.

Thursday, Kerger said it was “stunning”that Big Bird became a focus of the debate.

PBS CEO: We are America’s biggest classroomcnn

PBS commissioneda survey in March 2011 by the bipartisan polling firms of Hart Research andAmerican Viewpoint which it says showed 83% of Democrats and 56 percent of Republicanswere opposed to eliminating federal funding for public television.

According to a CNN pollconducted in March 2011, Americans grossly overestimate how much of their taxdollars helps fund public broadcasting. Although the Corporation for PublicBroadcasting receivedabout $420 million in 2010 from the federal government, CNN’s survey saidthe median guess as to what percentage of the federal budget goes to publicbroadcasting was 5 percent — which would put funding at about $178 billion — 424times higher than the actual amount. The actual funding represented about.014 percent of the federal budget.

So far, politicians have yet to wade into the Big Bird fray.But conservative HenryD’Andrea at The Washington Times wrote,“Kill Big Bird? Why Romney is right to cut PBS funding.” He says, “It is fair toassume that private entities will help take up the tab that the governmentcurrently subsidizes…”

Cutting PBS support (0.012% of budget) to help balance the Federal budget is like deleting text files to make room on your 500Gig hard driveNeil deGrasse Tyson

And as far as Big Bird and “Sesame Street” go, the potential cutting off of funding may beirrelevant. Sherrie Westin, executive vice president and Chief Marketing Officer of Sesame Workshop, told CNN’s Soledad O’Brien the idea of killing BigBird “is misleading” and that “Sesame Street will be here — Big Bird lives on.”She said Sesame Workshop receives very little funding from PBS.

Sesame Workshop: ‘Big Bird lives on’cnn

Sesame Street itself was staying out of the debate:

We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization. We do not comment on campaigns, but we’re happy we can all agree that everyone likes Big Bird!Sesame Workshop

Regardless, PBS appears to be gearing up for a potentialassault on its funding, tweeting today:

PBS is trusted, valued and essential. See why at http://www.valuepbs.org. (please retweet!)PBS